Hi, tech: WillowTree’s new office promotes a friendlier workday
It used to be the place to perform a tree pose in a superheated room. Now, the one-time Bikram Yoga studio on Fifth Street SE is home to a very different kind of workout—the mental gymnastics of the techies at WillowTree Apps. As a fast-growing firm that creates mobile and TV-integrated apps for clients such […]
The book look: City library addition celebrates the written word
Libraries are the repositories not only of books, but of feelings. There’s the love of a good read, of course, but bookworms harbor other associations with libraries, too: discovery, solitude and the satisfaction of working hard. When architect Bruce Wardell and his colleagues were asked to design a library addition for a Charlottesville homeowner, they […]
A bit of earth: How to buy land in the county
If you think “groundbreaking”—as in the physical act—might be one of the more thrilling words in our language, you might need to get in the market for land. Selecting a site where you can build anew, on whichever hilltop you like best, is a welcome adventure. But, like all adventures, it has its share of […]
Playing with form: A Nelson County house makes room for fun
Tom Davidson and Marilyn Mars love to laugh, and their house shows it. When they moved to Nelson County from Florida, they sought a modern dwelling, commissioning Marilyn’s brother Randall Mars, a McLean-based architect, to design it. Though clean lines attracted them, Marilyn says, this house—full of colorful, detailed art and objects—is anything but minimal. […]
Eight sides of efficient: The Octagonal Living Unit redefines small
There’s an enduring appeal to the idea of a compact dwelling that can go up fast—it’s been expressed in everything from the teepee to the mobile home. In the zeitgeist of the moment, it’s the phrase “tiny house” that holds currency. Down in Amherst County, sculptor Craig Pleasants has created his own version of the […]
Love your veggies: A fresh design for a healthy nosh at Roots Natural Kitchen
Alvaro Anspach and Alberto Namnum are passionate about vegetables. Eat mostly fresh veggies and fruits, they believe, and you’ll soon feel more energetic and focused. How are they spreading the gospel? From the pulpit of their restaurant, Roots Natural Kitchen, where they serve salads and grain bowls packed with avocados, broccoli and other super-healthy ingredients. […]
White and warm: Albemarle Cabinet Co. tweaks the standard kitchen
When Kristen Kaylor and her family moved into their new house off Rio Road last November, they didn’t get to make too many choices. The home was a spec house built by Bramante Homes, and much of the kitchen design had already been completed by Amy Hart of Albemarle Cabinet Co. Fortunately, Hart had been careful […]
Brand-new tradition: Greek Revival style in a Keswick four-over-four
Robin and Craig Ellis were searching for the perfect name for their Keswick property when they took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A sign directed their gaze across a ravine to a scree field—a place where fragments of rock covered a slope. These pieces, the remnants of a large boulder, are called “talus”: […]
On the waterfront: Lewis & Clark center builds river connections
One can sometimes forget that Charlottesville is a river town, but Alexandria Searls keeps the Rivanna firmly in mind. As director of the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center, she’s helped influence the choice of its location (overlooking the river in Darden Towe Park) and its mission (educating visitors, especially kids, about boatbuilding and nature-based aspects […]
Into the future: Raising the bar at a ’70s ranch house
This is a full circle kind of story. A couple of years ago, on this very page, we got some advice from local contractor Troy Yancey about renovating an Earlysville ranch house that was then on the market. Troy recommended opening some walls to improve flow, adding a fourth bedroom and a few other fixes. […]
One of a kind: An eccentric Charlottesville house welcomes new owners
Upholstered walls. A bright red hallway. Gilded chandeliers. When Holly and Kevin Davis bought their house in Fry’s Spring in 2012, it was, in an endearing way, over the top. “The house just evoked so much color and charm,” says Kathleen Conroy, a designer with Kenny Ball Design. Along with her colleague, Chloe Ball, she […]
Into the woods: A layered Fluvanna landscape smooths the way from house to forest
When you’re building a new house on a wooded hilltop—a house whose design prioritizes views of the outdoors—the landscape is a crucial piece of the puzzle. From within Ron Harris’ Fluvanna County house, the woodsy surroundings are a constant presence, especially through the south wall, which is made almost entirely of glass. Finished in 2007, […]
From before: As is, one of Albemarle’s oldest houses, Findowrie, is for sale
Often, brand-new houses are dubbed “homes” by real estate agents. That’s an untruth, because if it hasn’t been lived in, it’s nobody’s home. Findowrie, as its atmospheric name would suggest, dwells on the far opposite end of the spectrum. It’s been unoccupied for decades, but nonetheless it’s dripping with habitation, layered with time, all but […]
Fresh start: The Kluges’ palace, Albemarle House, welcomes the public
Talk about a house being great for entertaining. When opulent Albemarle House was built in the early 1980s by Patricia Kluge and her then-husband, media mogul John Kluge, they aimed to create a mansion fit to welcome royals and celebrities. As fate and fortune would have it, 30 years later, the 45-room home has become […]
Another chance to shine: Latitude 38 gives new life to historic materials
It was a kind of magic trick. An old house in Fifeville, sandwiched closely between its neighbors, was demolished to make way for a new, modern dwelling—and presto change-o, the new house reuses and features many of the materials from the old. It’s as though existing DNA was scrambled to create a novel animal. “You […]
Downtown’s movie sequel: Violet Crown Cinema mixes influences
By the time you read this, downtown Charlottesville should have its movie theater back. But it’s not just a matter of reopening the old Regal theater. The new Violet Crown Cinema, which now stands in its place, will be an entirely different animal. “I always think of these places as boutique cinemas: very bespoke, very […]
Out of a picture: In Fluvanna, Oak Grove is a calendar-worthy estate
Rolling drive? Check. Board fencing? Check. You’ve got your mature oaks and boxwoods, your brick façade, your white columns. And, naturally, there is a historical connection to a towering figure of early American history (Patrick “Give Me Liberty” Henry). It doesn’t get much more classic than Oak Grove, a 131-acre estate outside Scottsville. Visiting it […]
The low-key farmhouse: Building a country place that doesn’t ask for much
It’s a long way from old-town Fredericksburg to the rolling hills of Free Union. But after 20 years in a historic house in that Northern Virginia town, one couple was ready for the country life. Their four children mostly grown, they relocated to an old farmhouse in Free Union—where she had grown up—and began looking […]
A vision in bloom: At Waterperry Farm, gardens grow on a grand scale
For anyone confronting a property that’s short on landscaping—and feeling that it’ll be a lifetime before anything substantial can grow—Katherine Kane has reassuring words. “If you get obsessive, you can have a mature garden in 25 years.” She should know. In 1990, when she and her husband, Olin West, bought their Free Union farm, it […]
All in the family: An updated kitchen for a heritage farmhouse
It’s a truism that designers and their clients need to have a good collaborative relationship for a project to go smoothly. But it’s not always the case that they’re actually longtime friends. When Joel and Betty Loving asked designer Karen Turner to rethink a kitchen in their Fluvanna County farmhouse, the request hardly came out of […]
Drinking in the view: A beer garden and more to amp up Devils Backbone
Devils Backbone has been a mainstay of the local brewery scene since 2008. With its imposing building and its beautiful Nelson County site, it’s highly visible to Wintergreen-bound visitors, and hosting outdoor events like The Festy Experience (this year: October 9-11) has put it on the regional map. Says Heidi Crandall, who founded the business […]
Bedding up: On Alderman Road, bigger and better student digs
One thing about first-year college students: Year after year, they just keep showing up. In pursuit of better places for those folks to bed down, UVA has spent the last nine years building eight new structures on Alderman Road, a massive project that replaces older dorms built in the 1960s. With the first new building, […]
Above the clouds: A ridge-top house gets a look on par with its view
You’d never know that Peter and Angela D.’s house, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, isn’t brand new. Looking sharp in its ipe siding and modern lines, it appears to be a newly minted creation of Charlottesville design-build firm STOA, which just finished revamping it last December. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that it […]
Set in stone: An heirloom wall defines a grand exterior
The more dramatic the house, the more challenging it is to create an appropriate landscape surrounding it. When Jim and Cynthia Stultz built their Western Albemarle house in 2000, architects Daggett & Grigg drew them a plan for an imposing Palladian-style home, including an ambitious hardscape that featured a high semicircular stone wall along the […]
Second life: A Madison property ready for the next act
What do you want with a big old house in the woods? This listing, a 4,000- square-foot home outside Madison, seems to invite far-flung ideas. Sure, it could be a family home, as it has been since it was built in 1986. But something about it suggests that it’s ripe for repurposing. We’ll muse on […]
Back to school: A converted house keeps a foot in the past
Wend your way through quirky, loveable Batesville, and you’ll spy plenty of historical properties. The heart of this quintessential Albemarle village is loaded with timeworn buildings, but one of the most interesting residences isn’t quite visible from the road. Ecole—that’s French for “school,” bien sûr—is a onetime schoolhouse dating to the early 1920s. Those were […]
Water and stone: A city house finally gets a pool, and more
It had been a long time coming. Chris and Greg Menke have owned their house in Charlottesville since 1982, and they’ve made many changes and updates to it along the way. But there was at least one big project they hadn’t gotten around to. “A pool was always part of the plan,” says Greg. Though […]